James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace arrived in 2008 as a game with two jobs and one engine. Treyarch built it, Activision published it, and it landed on PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360 as a first-person shooter powered by the Call of Duty 4 engine. The job was to sell the Bond of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. The other job was to be a shooter worth playing on its own. It does the first well enough. It never quite finishes the second.
Trailer, via 007Bond.
Two Films, One Trigger
The game runs on the plots of both films, and the seams show. Bond meets Vesper Lynd, a Treasury accountant, on the way to Montenegro. Dealers from a drug organization spread through the train, and Bond fights them off, kills the boss Le Chiffre invited to the Casino Royale game, and takes his seat at the table. That last part is a real change from the film, and it is the most interesting thing the game does with the license. It lets you be the reason Bond is in the room.
From there the game follows the films closely. Bond beats Le Chiffre at poker, Vesper is kidnapped, Bond crashes his car chasing the kidnappers and is taken hostage. He escapes, fights through Le Chiffre’s barge to rescue her, and the two are recaptured by Le Chiffre’s bodyguards. Near death, they are saved when Mr. White kills Le Chiffre. The game tells this story with competence and no particular urgency.
The Camera Keeps Moving
The core of Quantum of Solace is a first-person shooter, but the view switches to third person to remind you that you are playing as Bond. That switch carries the cover system and the quick-time events. You see it in the construction-site chase from the start of Casino Royale, where quick-time events put you after Mollaka. The idea is sound. Bond should feel like Bond, not like a soldier with a license.
In practice the switching is the game’s clearest tell that it is working from someone else’s blueprint. The Call of Duty 4 engine gives the shooting a familiar weight, and the multiplayer and split-screen modes extend the package. Nothing here is broken. Nothing here is Bond, either, in the way the films were trying to redefine him.
What the Score Says
The IGDB critic aggregate puts James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace at 6.2 out of 10 across seven outlets. That number is fair, and it is fair for a specific reason: the game is a licensed product that does not embarrass its source, which is a lower bar than it sounds.
Here is the ranking of what actually works, in order:
- The train sequence and the Le Chiffre substitution, the one place the game improves on the film’s plot.
- The third-person cover system, which is functional and occasionally smart.
- The multiplayer and split-screen modes, which add hours the campaign does not.
- The quick-time events, which are the weakest use of the Bond camera.
The quick-time events are the part worth watching, because they show the whole problem. A game that switches to third person to emphasize that you are Bond is admitting the first-person shooting cannot carry that idea by itself. The camera change is a costume, not a mechanic.
A License Held Loosely
Quantum of Solace is not a bad game. It is a game that never decides what it wants to be, and 6.2 is what that indecision costs. The Call of Duty 4 engine was the right tool for a Bond shooter in 2008, and Treyarch used it without finding a reason for Bond to be in it.
KEY FACTS
– Release year: 2008
– Developer: Treyarch
– Publisher: Activision
– Platforms reviewed: PlayStation 3, PC, Xbox 360
– Engine: Call of Duty 4
– Modes: Single player, multiplayer, split screen
– Published critical score: 6.2/10 (IGDB critic aggregate, 7 outlets)
The films were rebuilding Bond as a man who gets hurt and keeps going. The game rebuilds him as a man who takes cover and waits for a prompt. That gap is the review. 6.2 of 10.
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